The Oldest Living Carnival

Olinda's Carnival predates Rio's and runs by different logic. Where Rio fills a stadium and sells tiered ticket access to one enormous procession, Olinda opens its streets and lets the city become the stage. The bonecos gigantes — the four-metre papier-mâché puppets that lead the processions — are not decorations; they are satirical documents, each commissioned to make a specific point about a specific public figure at a specific moment. A boneco that stops appearing in Carnival has made its argument and retired.

Frevo, the music driving all of it, was engineered as confrontation. It evolved in the early 20th century from the clash between brass bands and the capoeira practitioners who escorted rival groups through the streets; the fast lurching tempo was designed to be impossible to fight to while staying on beat. The small colored parasols carried by frevo dancers were originally weapons. The choreography preserves the evasive footwork of capoeira stripped of its martial intent.